Reordering entries

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TonyNaden

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Nov 3, 2025, 12:52:11 PMNov 3
to Shoebox/Toolbox Field Linguist's Toolbox
I want to reorder entries on a field which was not the original entry word, and export with that field at the head of the entry.  I know I've done this before but can't find the magic agin --  help anybody?  :

\lx dɔlintaa
\pl dɔlintaaba
\ps n
\sn 1
\ge fellow_followers
\de fellow-follower/disciple
\re fellow-follower
\rf 1SA 11:15[draft]
\xv ba daa laa m-maali dɔlintaa sara
\xe they again offered fellowship offerings
\lf Sim
\lv dɔlinkpeaa
\thes companion
\is II.E.4.c
\is II.B.6.b
\is II.B.6.c
\is II.E.2.b
\is II.E.4.c
\cf dɔli
\cf -taa


to become :

\thes companion
\lx dɔlintaa
\pl dɔlintaaba
\ps n
\sn 1
\ge fellow_followers
\de fellow-follower/disciple
\re fellow-follower
\rf 1SA 11:15[draft]
\xv ba daa laa m-maali dɔlintaa sara
\xe they again offered fellowship offerings
\lf Sim
\lv dɔlinkpeaa
\is II.E.4.c
\is II.B.6.b
\is II.B.6.c
\is II.E.2.b
\is II.E.4.c
\cf dɔli
\cf -taa

(to then load as a different Type where \thes is the entry field.

Alan Buseman

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Nov 5, 2025, 5:41:55 PMNov 5
to shoeboxtoolbox-fiel...@googlegroups.com, ToolBox Support
Hi, Tony,

I was surprised to see that this message only appeared in Alan's email! It should have also come to me! Sorry you haven't gotten a response until now. I don't check his email every day. 

At this point, I'm mostly acknowledging your message, but I will reply in another day or so with the information you're looking for. This looks like a "reversal" and it's not too hard, but not totally easy either.

Good to hear from you, by the way. It's been a long time.

Karen
Toolbox Support


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Alan Buseman

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Nov 5, 2025, 6:25:37 PMNov 5
to shoeboxtoolbox-fiel...@googlegroups.com, ToolBox Support
Well, that went faster than I expected. Since you were only moving the \thes field, it's actually fairly easy. (Some such modifications sometimes move all sorts of stuff around.)

This solution does assume there is only one \thes field. If you have more, let me know. It's a bit more complex, but not too difficult.

Here is the basic table, with comments.
c Move the \thes field to the top of the record
group(Main)
c wait for the beginning of a record
'\lx ' > store(Start) dup c capture the first fields
'\thes ' > endstore c stop storing the first fields
           dup      c don't lose the marker
           use(NextField) c wait for the \thes data to go out
group(NextField)
c The next backslash is the end of the \thes field
c since storing was stopped, the data has gone out
'\' > out(Start)  c output the first fields
      dup back(1) c send the backslash to Main
      use(Main)   c data following \thes will go out

If you have any questions about how it works, I'll be glad to answer.

I was going to tell you how to add the database type to the file, but the explanation seemed to complicate things, even though it's fairly simple to do.

Karen
Toolbox Support

Tony Naden

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Nov 8, 2025, 2:36:34 AMNov 8
to shoeboxtoolbox-fiel...@googlegroups.com
Hi, Karen, thanks for your prompt and helpful reply as ever. With this and various contributions from other interactants and ideas of my own which are always stimulated when I ask for help (!) I have managed to do what was wanted.

Yes, and anyway I always just cut and paste the Type from another database with the same type.



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